USA - Page Text Content

2: Day 1 | After 20hrs of travel we arrived exhausted at San Francisco. Despite our jetlag we began our adventure at Fishermans Wharf and a tram ride back to our hotel - The Grosvenor.

3: We all had fun riding the Cable Cars in San Francisco. | Day 1

4: Ghirardehli Square | Day 1

5: Union Square

6: Lombard St

7: Beautiful Streets | Day 2

9: Big Red Mack Fire Truck | Day 2 | Fun! Fun! Fun! We all had such a great time on this 75min tour of San Francisco. Nothing like travelling across the Golden Gate Bridge on the back of an open top Fire Truck! This was the highlight of Tom's day.

10: Pier 39 was like the quintessential boardwalk. Lots of shops, a carousel, seals and of course yummy shrimp at Bubba Gump!

11: Day 2

13: Alcatraz | Day 2

14: After a short trip on the ferry we arrived on the island for our night tour. With individual headphones we listened to the fascinating stories about Alcatraz. Tom loved the self guided tour so much he wanted to stay! | Day 2

16: Alcatraz | Day 2

17: David had a private tour of San Quentin State Prison. Opened in 1852 it is the oldest prison in California. San Quentin has about 4,000 inmates and is the only prison in the state with Death Row. | Day 3

18: Whilst David was on his tour the rest of us went shopping. (Don't look too close at how many bags Georgia is holding!) We also found a Santa in Union Square that we could have our photo with if we tipped him a dollar. | Day 3

19: Dining in the Rainforest Cafe is like an adventure in the jungle. Moving elephants, waterfalls, gorillas and all the sounds to go along with it. To top it all off we had an Erupting Volcano for dessert. A chocolate brownie tower topped with ice-cream, whipped cream and caramel sauce. | Day 3

20: Alamo Square | The Painted Ladies as featured in Full House | Day 4

21: On our last day in San Francisco we hired a Grand Caravan to go exploring . We headed up the coast a couple of hours to Stinson Beach for a picnic lunch. Here we found a quaint little town with a great park for the kids to play.

22: Muir Woods

23: Muir Woods is the home to hundreds of magnificent Redwoods that range from 400 to 800 years old. Some trees extend to 250 feet high. This was our last stop before we left San Francisco. | Day 4

25: Bryant Park | Day 5

26: Statue of Liberty | Day 6 | The Statue of Liberty was a short ferry trip from the City. An international symbol of freedom and peace that was given to the USA by France in 1886.

28: THE BIG APPLE | The Charging Bull of Wall Street.

29: We did a tour of the Federal Reserve Bank. No cameras were allowed inside and it was top security. We ventured into the depths of the bank and went inside the Gold Vault. 900 tons of gold bars were just an arm length away in cell like rooms. | Day 6

30: St Paul's Chapel | Day 6 | St Paul's Chapel survived the collapse of the World Trade Center and is now the home of a museum in memory of all the many people who helped in the days after September 11.

35: We loved our day trip to Brooklyn. It was so quiet and peaceful compared to Manhattan. The brown stones were just stunning. | Christmas in Brooklyn. | Day 7

36: Grimaldi's Pizzeria | Ranked NYC #1 Pizza!! Under the Brooklyn Bridge | In the world of Pizza, Grimaldi's is an institution. Grimaldi's history of coal fired brick oven pizza can be traced to the first pizzeria in america back in 1905. | Day 7

37: 99c slice | We all loved the New York Style Pizza but Georgia became obsessed with it. A few snapshots of the many Cheese Pizzas Georgia devoured!

38: Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge towards the Manhattan skyline was one of the most memorable experiences of our stay in New York. | Day 7

39: Brooklyn Bridge

40: Mary Poppins | Day 7

43: Macy's Santa Land | Day 8

44: Top of the Rock | Rockefeller Christmas Tree | View of Central Park from the top of the Rockefeller

45: Great view of The Empire State Building | Day 8

46: Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular

47: Day 8

48: Horse and Carriage ride through Central Park | Day 9

49: Museum of Natural History

50: Central Park on a | Day 9

51: cold winters day

52: Ice Skating in Central Park

53: Day 9

55: Empire State Building | Day 10

56: Day 11

57: We spent 3 nights at The Luxor in Las Vegas.

58: Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam | Day 12

59: Day 12

61: Day 12

62: Day 12

63: After a half hour helicopter flight we arrived at the Colorado River at the base of the Grand Canyon.

64: Day 12

66: Day 14

68: The Matterhorn was a favourite with everyone.

69: Day 14

70: Day 14

72: CALIFORNIA Adventure Park | Day 15

75: LEGOLAND CALIFORNIA | Day 16

76: Knott's Berry Farm | Happy 15th Birthday Georgia! | Day 17

78: Day 18 | Christmas Eve was spent at the Storytellers Cafe in Disneyland. A quick walk down Main St, Disneyland and back to our warm fire at Park Vue Inn. We hung all the decorations that we had collected during our holiday on the tree and wrapped our presents. | Christmas tree on Main St, Disneyland | Final Santa requests at Storytellers Cafe | Main St, Disneyland

79: ' | 'TWAS THE NIGHT before CHRISTMAS

80: Day 19 | Santa was still able to find us on the other side of the world.